| Buyback Scorecard A Tale of Two Stock Buybacks Best and Worst Programs Industry Comparisons |
The table below ranks the 269 companies in the S&P 500 that bought back at least 4 percent of their shares from December 31, 2011, through December 31, 2013. The companies are ranked according to their return on investment from these repurchases. As calculated by Fortuna Advisors, a New York City-based consultancy that compiled the data for Institutional Investor , buyback ROI measures the overall rate of return of buybacks, based on the internal rate of return of the cash flows associated with them. Buyback strategy tracks the performance of the underlying stock in terms of annualized total shareholder return. Once Fortuna determines buyback ROI and buyback strategy, buyback effectiveness can then be calculated as simply the difference between the two, determined as compounded return.
| How the S&P 500 Stack Up as Stock Repurchasers 1—50 | 51—100 | 101—150 | 151—200 | 201—250 | 251—269 | ||||||||
| Company | Industry | Market Capitalization | $ Total Buyback | $ Total Buyback / Market Cap | Buyback Strategy | Buyback Effectiveness | Buyback ROI | |
| Average | $45,904 | $3,097 | 8.1% | 26.7% | 2.3% | 29.5% | ||
| Median | $19,140 | $1,452 | 7.0% | 25.6% | 1.3% | 29.3% | ||
| 201 | Occidental Petroleum Corp. | Energy | 76,656 | 1,526 | 2.0 | 5.3 | 12.2 | 18.2 |
| 202 | Republic Services | Commercial and Professional Services | 11,955 | 540 | 4.5 | 14.3 | 3.1 | 17.8 |
| 203 | CF Industries | Materials | 13,356 | 1,909 | 14.3 | 22.1 | -3.6 | 17.7 |
| 204 | Pepsico | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 127,197 | 6,220 | 4.9 | 17.9 | -0.3 | 17.6 |
| 205 | Altria Group | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 76,790 | 1,581 | 2.1 | 21.0 | -2.9 | 17.4 |
| 206 | Staples | Retailing | 10,387 | 709 | 6.8 | 7.4 | 9.1 | 17.2 |
| 207 | LSI Corp. | Semiconductors and Semiconductor Equipment | 6,062 | 436 | 7.2 | 22.3 | -4.4 | 16.9 |
| 208 | AutoZone | Retailing | 16,111 | 2,732 | 17.0 | 17.1 | -0.3 | 16.7 |
| 209 | Stanley Black & Decker | Capital Goods | 14,274 | 1,113 | 7.8 | 16.9 | -0.3 | 16.6 |
| 210 | The Gap | Retailing | 17,546 | 2,009 | 11.4 | 47.8 | -21.6 | 15.9 |
| 211 | Accenture | Software and Services | 52,373 | 5,080 | 9.7 | 18.3 | -2.2 | 15.7 |
| 212 | Express Scripts | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 56,599 | 4,055 | 7.2 | 22.6 | -5.9 | 15.4 |
| 213 | Praxair | Materials | 38,276 | 1,213 | 3.2 | 13.3 | 1.2 | 14.6 |
| 214 | Cablevision Systems Corp. | Media | 4,798 | 221 | 4.6 | 6.8 | 7.3 | 14.6 |
| 215 | Ball Corp. | Materials | 7,472 | 979 | 13.1 | 20.4 | -5.1 | 14.3 |
| 216 | Varian Medical Systems | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 8,230 | 833 | 10.1 | 12.9 | 1.0 | 14.1 |
| 217 | PetSmart | Retailing | 7,546 | 691 | 9.2 | 24.3 | -8.6 | 13.7 |
| 218 | The Western Union Co. | Software and Services | 9,526 | 1,166 | 12.2 | 3.9 | 9.3 | 13.6 |
| 219 | Waters Corp. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 8,513 | 597 | 7.0 | 14.7 | -0.9 | 13.6 |
| 220 | Wal-Mart Stores | Food and Staples Retailing | 254,623 | 12,573 | 4.9 | 19.3 | -4.9 | 13.4 |
| 221 | Kohl’s Corp. | Retailing | 12,152 | 2,105 | 17.3 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 13.3 |
| 222 | The AES Corp. | Utilities | 10,483 | 623 | 5.9 | 13.1 | 0.2 | 13.3 |
| 223 | International Game Technology | Consumer Services | 4,520 | 872 | 19.3 | 6.3 | 6.6 | 13.3 |
| 224 | Expeditors International of Washington | Transportation | 9,097 | 564 | 6.2 | 2.4 | 10.6 | 13.3 |
| 225 | Merck & Co. | Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Life Sciences | 146,243 | 9,1007 | 6.2 | 22.5 | -7.9 | 12.9 |
| 226 | eBay | Software and Services | 71,028 | 2,241 | 3.2 | 30.2 | -13.5 | 12.6 |
| 227 | Nordstrom | Retailing | 11,949 | 1,240 | 10.4 | 13.4 | -0.7 | 12.5 |
| 228 | Dr Pepper Snapple Group | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 9,775 | 800 | 8.2 | 15.3 | -3.1 | 11.7 |
| 229 | Oracle Corp. | Software and Services | 172,071 | 20,880 | 12.1 | 7.2 | 3.9 | 11.4 |
| 230 | Chevron Corp. | Energy | 240,224 | 8,636 | 3.6 | 12.5 | -1.2 | 11.2 |
| 231 | Baxter International | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 37,745 | 2,393 | 6.3 | 16.1 | -4.8 | 10.6 |
| 232 | Kimco Realty Corp. | Real Estate | 8,091 | 633 | 7.8 | 18.6 | -7.1 | 10.3 |
| 233 | Cisco Systems | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 119,925 | 11,497 | 9.6 | 13.9 | -3.3 | 10.1 |
| 234 | Wisconsin Energy Corp. | Utilities | 9,364 | 877 | 4.0 | 16.4 | -5.4 | 10.1 |
| 235 | Family Dollar Stores | Retailing | 7,391 | 364 | 4.9 | 11.0 | -1.0 | 9.9 |
| 236 | Juniper Networks | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 11,398 | 1,228 | 10.8 | -2.7 | 12.1 | 9.0 |
| 237 | Laboratory Corp. of America | Healthcare Equipment and Services | 7,986 | 1,532 | 19.2 | 9.7 | -0.9 | 8.7 |
| 238 | Denbury Resources | Energy | 5,860 | 546 | 9.3 | 7.4 | 0.9 | 8.3 |
| 239 | Exxon Mobil Corp. | Energy | 442,094 | 37,066 | 8.4 | 11.0 | -2.8 | 7.9 |
| 240 | Yum! Brands | Consumer Services | 33,671 | 1,735 | 5.2 | 16.6 | -8.0 | 7.3 |
| 241 | The Coca-Cola Co. | Food, Beverage and Tobacco | 182,422 | 9,391 | 5.1 | 11.3 | -4.5 | 6.4 |
| 242 | Sysco Corp. | Food and Staples Retailing | 21,036 | 988 | 4.7 | 14.3 | -7.1 | 6.2 |
| 243 | Target Corp. | Retailing | 39,992 | 3,336 | 8.3 | 12.8 | -6.0 | 6.0 |
| 244 | Leggett & Platt | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 4,369 | 199 | 4.6 | 21.3 | -12.6 | 6.0 |
| 245 | Ralph Lauren Corp. | Consumer Durables and Apparel | 15,951 | 955 | 6.0 | 8.9 | -2.9 | 5.8 |
| 246 | Jabil Circuit | Technology Hardware and Equipment | 3,601 | 254 | 7.0 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 5.5 |
| 247 | Deere & Co. | Capital Goods | 34,019 | 3,209 | 9.4 | 9.4 | -3.8 | 5.2 |
| 248 | AT&T | Telecommunication Services | 185,223 | 25,780 | 13.9 | 15.4 | -8.9 | 5.1 |
| 249 | McDonald’s Corp. | Consumer Services | 96,548 | 4,393 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 0.2 | 4.7 |
| 250 | Caterpillar | Capital Goods | 57,787 | 2,000 | 3.5 | -0.1 | 4.8 | 4.7 |
| Source: Fortuna Advisors Analysis using data from the Capital IQ database. Financial Data from December 2011 to December 2013. Includes the 486 members of the current S&P 500 that were public for the full period. Market Capitalization as of: 12/31/2013. Companies Included here if $ Total Buyback / Market Capitalization is greater than 4% or if $ Total Buyback is greater than $1 Billion. | ||||||||
